1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to computer systems; and more particularly, it is directed to utilization of graphics processors associated with computer systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the power and complexity of personal computer systems increase, graphics operations are increasingly being performed by dedicated graphics rendering devices referred to as graphics processing units (GPUs). GPUs are often used in removable graphics cards which are coupled to a motherboard via a standardized bus (e.g., AGP or PCI Express). GPUs may also be used in game consoles and in integrated graphics solutions (e.g., for use in some portable computers and lower-cost desktop computers). Although GPUs vary in their capabilities, they may typically be used to perform such tasks as rendering of two-dimensional (2D) graphical data, rendering of three-dimensional (3D) graphical data, accelerated rendering of graphical user interface (GUI) display elements, and digital video playback. A GPU may implement one or more application programmer interfaces (APIs) which permit programmers to invoke the functionality of the GPU.
Modern GPUs are typically implemented with a parallel structure. Accordingly, a GPU may include a plurality of execution channels (usually four) which can be used simultaneously to perform multi-channel operations. To take advantage of the parallel structure, a GPU may be configured to process multi-channel input. Multi-channel input may include vectorized data. Multi-channel input may include graphical data having a plurality of channels, such as separate channels for red, green, blue, and alpha data. Alternatively, the multi-channel data may include other types of vectorized data such as arrays of vertices, etc. The parallel structure of the GPU may permit efficient processing of multi-channel data by executing instructions on all of the data channels simultaneously.
Nevertheless, not all operations use vectorized input data. Single-channel operations use input and produce output having only one channel. When GPUs have been used to perform single-channel operations, only one execution channel has been used at any given time. When the GPU is used in this manner, the remaining execution channels may be left idle.